Contrary to what you might expect, Sliders
is actually based on real science. Indeed, the idea of parallel worlds may
seem on the face of it to be pure fantasy, but for many scientists, it is
much more than mere science-fiction.

Einstein's theory of relativity predicted the existence of "black
holes", a hypothesis which has since been verified. These cosmic phenomena
arise from the death of a star, after it collapses in on itself under the
force of its own gravity. Inside a black hole, gravity is so intense that
even light cannot escape the gravitational field (hence the name black hole).

Albert Einstein and another physicist by the name of Nathan
Rosen posited that each black hole would symmetrically on another gravitational
well called a white hole (or sometimes also white fountain). The black hole/white
hole pair would form a "wormhole", or vortex (the interdimensional
passage used by the Sliders, called an Einstein-Rosen Bridge).

Thus, any matter swallowed up by the black hole would be quickly
spat out by the white hole, in an unknown location... This could be either
a distant point in the universe, in which case the wormhole would act as a
shortcut through space and time. Alternatively, it could be a parallel universe,
in which case it would act as a bridge between the different dimensions.

The second hypothesis could explain the total absense of antimatter
in the universe as we know it. According to the universe's governing principle
of symmetry, there must be equal amounts of matter and antimatter. However,
we have failed to discover the slightest trace of the latter, although we
have succeeded in producing it artificially (at the CERN laboratory in Geneva,
Switzerland in 1995, and in other particle accelerators). The existence of
parallel universes could explain the lack of antimatter in our world. In parallel
dimensions, then, there could be objects similar to the planets and stars
we are familiar with in our own, but constructed of antimatter (this is one
of the most recent theories, after the principles of dissymetry, and of the
annihilation frontier).

According to a poll of 72 leading physicists conducted by the
American researcher David Raub in 1995 (published in the French periodical
Sciences et Avenir in January 1998), the multiple universe
theory is widely accepted:

Sadly, we are not yet able to cross these bridges, if they exist.
In fact, it would require a tremendous amount of energy to open a wormhole
artificially, and the gravitational force inside would be so strong that we
would be completely crushed.

Thus, Quinn must be a true genius to be able to open an interdimensional
vortex so easily and quickly, and without suffering any injury!

Those who believe time travel may be possible rely similarly
on the existence of parallel universes, which would allow for the resolution
of the &quotgrandfather paradox":

If a man were to go back in time
and kill his grandfather as a child, logically speaking he would not be born,
since his father before him would not be born. But if he wasn't born, he can't
go back and kill his grandfather, therefore his grandfather lives, and the
grandson is eventually born, therefore he can kill his grandfather, and so
on...

If you consider that wormholes are shortcuts through the space-time
continuum, the man could use one to go kill his grandfather. However, he would
arrive not in the past of his own universe, but instead in that of a parallel
universe, in which his existence does not depend on the continued existence
of his grandfather. In killing this version of his grandfather, he would simply
be preventing the birth of his double in the parallel universe...

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